Drinking two cups of tea every day could help you live longer, new research has found.
A cup of tea is one of life’s great comforts. Whether you’re easing yourself into the work day or winding down for the evening, a hot mug of tea is something many of us associate with relaxation –a time to take a breather from whatever else might be going on in your mind.
Fortunately, drinking tea is also very good for your health, new research has found. In a study published in the Annals Of Internal Medicine, researchers found that people who drink more than two cups of tea per day are likely to live longer than those who don’t.
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This isn’t the first scientific research into the health benefits of tea. A 2019 study found evidence that drinking tea could positively impact brain structure, with tea drinkers being more organised and efficient. Previous research has also found that drinking tea could improve memory and boost creativity.
But this latest study, which had nearly 500,000 participants, offers novel insights into tea drinking, concluding that drinking black tea reduced the risk of mortality by between 9% and 13% over 10 years.
Do you drink your tea with sugar or milk? You’ll be glad to know that researchers found these positive effects are unimpacted by adding either of these things to your drink. And the type of tea might not matter either.
Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, professor of preventive medicine and public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid, explains that most studies on tea had been done in Asia, where green tea is most widely consumed. Green tea might have previously been considered healthier than black tea, as it’s thought to improve brain health, blood sugar and even aid digestion. But this study suggests that black tea could be just as good for you, as 89% of participants in the study drank black tea and experienced the health benefits of the traditional drink.
While this study doesn’tdefinitively establish that tea is the cause of lower early mortality, other papers have suggested that tea’s polyphenol content might be the reason it’s so good for your heart.But it’s worth noting that, portion size and the effect of the strength of tea were not assessed in this latest study, so it’s hard to say for sure that a cup of tea a day (or two) is really going to make you live longer.
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However, overall, the results of the study are very positive for tea drinkers and it certainly seems like there’s no harm in putting the kettle on a couple of times a day. All the more reason for a tea break, hey?
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